Recipe: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

HeadCranBiscottiThis is the recipe used in the companion Step-by-Step Biscotti Treats post.

With a festive mix of red cranberries and green pistachios, these make a tasty surprise any time of year but also a lovely winter holiday gift.

This recipe was derived from TheFreshLoaf.com as supplied by member MimiCT.

Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cups (about 4 ounces/113 g) dried cranberries
  • 2 1/2 cups (320 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (200 g) sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup shelled natural pistachio nuts
  • egg wash made by beating together I large egg and 1 teaspoon water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

In a bowl combine the cranberries with enough hot water to cover them and let them soak for 5 minutes. Drain the cranberries well and pat them dry with paper towels.

In your mixer’s bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend.

Using the paddle attachment, add the eggs and vanilla, beating until a dough is formed, and stir in the cranberries and the pistachios. Note that this dough is very sticky and stiff, the only moisture added is from the eggs.

Prepare a cookie sheet or baking pan with home-made pan release, generously coating it. Or grease and flour it. Spread a light coat of oil on your countertop.

Oil your hands – seriously, this is sticky dough, you do not want to handle it with dry hands. Turn the dough out onto the oiled surface and knead the dough a few times. Keep your hands lightly oiled to avoid gummy build up. Once the dough has been kneaded a few times, use your bench scraper to divide it into two equal pieces and clean up the counter a bit as needed.

Form each half into a rough log about 13 inches long and 2 inches wide, transfer it to your greased baking sheet. Shape the logs into a slightly flattened form about 3/4 to 1 inch high. Make sure to leave about 3 inches of space between the two shapes as it does spread out during baking. Use your oiled bench scraper to tidy up the flattened shapes so they have nice straight sides.

Brush a coating of egg wash onto the two logs.

Bake the logs in the middle of the preheated 325 F. oven for 30 minutes.

Leaving them on the baking sheet, remove the logs from the oven and let them cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Leave the oven on at 325º.

On a cutting board cut the now cooled logs crosswise on the diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick slices. You should get about 18 slices from each log (including the end nubs, these can be your taste testers). So slice each log in half, then each half into three, then each of those into three slices.

Arrange the sliced biscotti, cut sides down, on the baking sheet and bake in the 325º oven for 5 to 6 minutes on each side, or until they are pale golden.

Transfer the biscotti to racks to cool and store them in airtight containers.

Makes about 36 biscotti.

One Reply to “Recipe: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti”

  1. I owe you one because a guy at work just asked for a biscotti recipe for a carry-in. That crosses over to the dangerous land of baking that I tend to avoid so I just forwarded this to him.

    Awesome job!

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